


Goodbye, Mr. Perfect

by savanting



Series: Kashimalin's 50 Kisses Challenge [48]
Category: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket (Anime 2019), Fruits Basket - Takaya Natsuki (Manga)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, Insecurity, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, One Shot, Phobias, Post-Canon, Relationship Problems, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28489962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savanting/pseuds/savanting
Summary: Machi knows her boyfriend Yuki Sohma isn't perfect, but that doesn't mean anything in the face of her insecurities. One-Shot.[Prompt 34. Kisses that start on their fingers and run up their arm, eventually ending on their lips.]Using Kashimalin's 50 kisses prompt list: https://www.google.com/amp/s/kashimalin-fanfiction.tumblr.com/post/178524845380/50-kiss-prompts/amp
Relationships: Honda Tohru & Sohma Yuki, Kuragi Machi/Sohma Yuki, Manabe Kakeru & Sohma Yuki, Sohma Kyou & Sohma Yuki
Series: Kashimalin's 50 Kisses Challenge [48]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023708
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Goodbye, Mr. Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own _Fruits Basket_ in any capacity.
> 
> @Five_seas challenged me with this pairing, and I avoided it for a while. I know it's short. I know it's not as in-depth as some of my other entries to this challenge. But...I'm not a big Machi/Yuki fan (blasphemy, I know!). I honestly wanted to see Yuki go off into the sunset still trying to find himself away from the traumas of his past. I don't know if he was even _ready_ for a relationship. But Yuki is Natsuki Takaya's creation, not mine, so she has the final say over what happens to him. And thus Machi/Yuki is canon. I hope fans of the pairing were able to enjoy this fic even just a little bit. I tried my best.
> 
> The link to the original kiss prompt list: https://www.google.com/amp/s/kashimalin-fanfiction.tumblr.com/post/178524845380/50-kiss-prompts/amp

Even after months of dating, Yuki Sohma was still somewhat of a mystery to Machi Kuragi. She supposed it was the way of his conversation: even when he was asked a question about himself, he would deflect back to the original speaker, as if he wanted to talk as little as possible about himself. Machi herself tried not to press the issue - not only because she wasn’t assertive in that way but also because she could relate to this quirk - but it _did_ bother her that Yuki never seemed comfortable enough to be himself around anyone.

Anyone, that is, except Kakeru Manabe - Machi’s half-sibling.

And that, frankly, did bother her a tiny bit. It was a niggling feeling she couldn't quite shake, even after dating Yuki for a prolonged period of time.

“Manabe?” Yuki actually laughed when Machi brought up her half-brother. He had been unpacking at the time, taking books out of moving boxes and placing them each carefully on the bookshelves. Machi tried to keep her gaze from gluing to the books, all lined up neatly, because she wanted _so badly_ just to knock them all to the side like dominoes. But she knotted her fingers together behind her back. She was still trying to break her compulsion. “You know him. He can talk about _anything_. It’s actually pretty annoying, really.”

_Sometimes I think you can talk more easily to him than you can to me._

But did she really want to go there? Why did she have to feel like she was in a competition with Kakeru just for Yuki’s attention and regard?

“Lots of people like him,” Machi said, trying to keep her voice steady as she felt Yuki’s eyes lingering on her face. “He’s friendly, outgoing, funny. He’s never known what it’s like not to have a friend.”

This time, Machi couldn’t bring herself to look at Yuki, but she saw him shift in stance from his kneel on the floor to a standing position. He gently took her face in his hands and lifted it up until they were staring at each other eye-to-eye.

“Machi - are you _jealous_?”

Bless him, he actually sounded astounded by the very _idea_. As if it were preposterous that he secretly preferred her half-sibling, that it was just another losing battle in Machi’s long line of disappointments since childhood.

Her eyes slid away from his as a blush began to heat in her cheeks. “Don’t be absurd,” she said, softly, but Yuki wasn’t stupid: he was actually fairly intuitive for a boy, especially when it came to emotional responses. He rarely talked about his family, but even she could recognize someone else who had some type of unsaid trauma in his past.

Someday he would tell her. If he trusted her. If he found her as easy to talk to as he did Kakeru.

“You _are_ jealous,” Yuki said, his voice still full of surprise, and one of his hands fell to take up her own. “Do you think I’m secretly in love with Manabe or something?”

Machi hadn’t wanted to say it - hadn’t even wanted to give the thought credence - but she had remembered how the girls at school had once tittered after Yuki and Kakeru as the boys had gone about their student council duties.

_”Don’t you think it would be kinda sexy to see Manabe-kun pin Sohma-kun against a wall?”_

_“Whaaaat?” The other girl’s laugh had been bright but a little breathless. “Like one of those BL manga you read? Come on!”_

_“Don’t make fun of me!” The girl had swatted at her friend’s arm. “You know how hot it would be if Manabe-kun and Sohma-kun were in a secret relationship!”_

_The girls had shared another laugh, oblivious that Machi was listening in, until they turned around and saw her glare._

“No,” Machi said, her voice soft yet defiant, even as her heart stuttered, _Yes._

“Hmm.” Yuki’s tone sounded considering. His fingertips tapped a rhythm against her hand. “Lying doesn’t become you, Machi.”

Before she could defend herself even as her anxious expression probably gave her away, Yuki lifted her fingers to his lips. “Do you need to be convinced? Because I’m willing. If it needs to come to that.”

Machi didn’t know how to answer as Yuki slowly brushed kisses along her palm, the outside of her arm, her elbow - each touch making her feel like her skin had lit up with a full-body blush.

“Yuki-kun,” his name trembled out of her own mouth, and she felt his lips smile against her shoulder just outside the strap of her summer dress. It was the kind of smile that was all too aware; he knew exactly what he was doing to her as she felt her legs grow weak.

 _I was right,_ she thought in a daze. _Yuki isn’t a prince at all. He’s much more a devil than he looks._

When his mouth was about to reach hers, however, he stopped the invasion of her senses - and she peeked under her lashes at him. He was so close that she could feel his breath just a moment from her lips.

“What do you think now?” Yuki’s hand wound through her hair, easing through the strands until he had a gentle yet firm grip upon her. “Do you still want to believe that I could do anything like this with Manabe?”

_No. Yes. I don’t know._

All she could manage was a soft sigh, a sound of surrender, and then Yuki’s mouth pressed against hers. The kiss was far more fierce than usual, a thing left untamed, ready to tell her in no uncertain terms that _she_ was the one Yuki Sohma wanted.

Not Kakeru Manabe. Not Tohru Honda. Not even Kyo Sohma, another one all the weird girls in high school had thought Yuki secretly harbored feelings for.

But something else was still bothering her...

Before Machi could lose herself in the kiss, she broke away to murmur against Yuki’s lips: “I won’t be able to focus unless you let me rearrange the bookshelves.”

All too familiar by now with her particular compulsion, Yuki chuckled. “Fine by me,” he said.

It was a relief to knock the books over, to push them into disarray, right before she went right back to kissing the boy who had accepted her and, somehow, loved her in spite of her flaws.

Machi was so, _so_ glad that air of perfection had just been a facade.

And with her - well, at least somehow Yuki Sohma had the freedom to be himself. That in and of itself was a small miracle.


End file.
